Given the shaky stock markets around the world today, and the suggestion that we are in for some tough times ahead, I thought this might be a good opportunity to start a thread where people can share their tips and thoughts on frugality.

Logged

If you're living a happy life as a Christian, you're doing something wrong.

I'm taking the bus to work. I love it. Not only is it economical for us in terms of a monthly pass being roughly the price of a tank of gas, but it's better in terms of emissions, and it also allows me time to pray and/or read on my way there; a very calm, soothing way to start the day.

Also, we've become coupon cutters; we buy things in bulk as they go on sale, then freeze them. We then plan meals around stuff we already have. Our weekly grocery bill is now around $50. You can go to http://www.thegrocerygame.com/ to see how this works (at least, in the States).

The dandelion leaves you pay for in the supermarket are no different to the dandelions you remove from your lawn and throw away. When we were kids, mum used to collect dandelion leaves from vacant blocks and our own yard for salads. Boiled dandelion leaves dressed with a squeeze of lemon juice are also a Greek staple for Fasting days.

I've also began using coldwater detergent as much as I can to conserve my hot water. And speaking of hot water, y'all might consider putting an insulation blanket around your water heater this winter; it really helps quite a lot. When it comes to conserving your money, the best advice I've ever heard is this- Live Below Your Means...

Logged

"The Scots-Irish; Brewed in Scotland, bottled in Ireland, uncorked in America." ~Scots-Irish saying

Cold-water detergent's a great idea. We haven't ever run our laundry in hot water, and it still is quite clean. With several gallons of water per wash, each load of laundry is like a bath. You don't want to pay to heat that much water if you don't have to.

Logged

"It is remarkable that what we call the world...in what professes to be true...will allow in one man no blemishes, and in another no virtue."--Charles Dickens

1. We usually eat what we cook (mostly, to be honest, what my wife cooks - I am a pretty bad cook and Lesya never forces me to do the cooking, because she excels in it herself and loves it). That includes lunches at work: we take things from home, totally ignoring the expensive and bad-quality cafeteria in our universities. We only go out to celebrate something - never to simply eat. And these celebrations aren't very frequent, too. Eating only home-cooked things is a major saver.

2. We never drink sodas. Once you start, it's easy to develop a habit of drinking this stuff, while in fact it is terribly harmful for your health and not something you really need. We drink coffee in the morning and sometimes tea in the afternoon (on weekends), but never all those expensive and redundant Cokes, Pepsis, Dr. Peppers, Montain Dews and whatnot. Also a big money-saving thing, if you think about it.

Cold-water detergent's a great idea. We haven't ever run our laundry in hot water, and it still is quite clean. With several gallons of water per wash, each load of laundry is like a bath. You don't want to pay to heat that much water if you don't have to.

And as a bonus, you don't run the risk of shrinking your husband's work slacks down to Steve Urkel length. True story.

Groceries: We're also saving money by eating dinner before we go grocery shopping, making a list and staying with it, and buying staples on sale and freezing them.

Cooking at Home: We do cook our own meals more often now and I'm going to start cooking big meals and freezing the leftovers. Also, practice your cooking skills! It's not hard to make really good food at home if you just try. All it takes is some decent ingredients, time, and attention. You'll save money and you'll feel much healthier when you cook at home. It helps tremendously (coming from a Pampered Chef consultant here ) to have good kitchen tools, too. Cooking is much easier and more enjoyable if you have a good knife set and a lot more fun if you have other userful gadgets. As Alton Brown always says, there's no need to have unitasking equipment in the kitchen except for a fire extinguisher. Get tools that are versatile and easy to use. If it takes you 20 minutes to put it together you're not going to use it more than once a year and then you're not getting your money's worth out of it.

Baby Food: For those with really small children, consider making your own baby food. The jarred stuff is ridiculously expensive (usually around $0.50 per jar and our daughter can eat two jars per meal) and you'll know exactly what goes into the food you make so you won't have to worry about preservatives. We buy whole butternut squash, carrots, peaches, apples, etc. and microwave them to soften. For younger babies, you can stick that in the blender and puree until smooth. Check out the book/video combo Fresh Baby So Easy food kit (this is what we use) or one of the other baby food-making books.

Gasoline/Petrol: Unfortunately, Mr. Y and I live too far away from city bus routes to make them feasible (especially with a toddler and Mr. Y's work commute). The best way we've saved on gas so far is just to drive sensibly. There's no reason to shoot out of a stop light like you're trying to race everyone. Take it easy, plan your drive in advance, and take into account how long it will take you to get to your destination. I see a lot of people in Springfield tearing down the road in a frenzy to get somewhere on time and all they would need to do is leave ten minutes earlier.

General Budget: Get one. You'd be surprised how much money you can find when you take a close look at where you're spending it. Our splurging tends to be on eating out with friends or ordering a pizza when we're both too tired to cook. Try to cut back on unplanned spending, too. This is where I get myself in trouble, with a couple of dollars here and there I can easily spend $30 a day on little things.

« Last Edit: September 30, 2008, 11:04:35 AM by EofK »

Logged

Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so. -- Douglas Adams

General Budget: Get one. You'd be surprised how much money you can find when you take a close look at where you're spending it. Our splurging tends to be on eating out with friends or ordering a pizza when we're both too tired to cook. Try to cut back on unplanned spending, too. This is where I get myself in trouble, with a couple of dollars here and there I can easily spend $30 a day on little things.

When I created mine, I was amazed at how much I was spending and on what. When you plunk down $5 to 7$ bucks a day on fast food (bad idea to begin with), at the end of the month you can see how fast and how much it adds up to. Creating a budget isn't necessarily fun (although I enjoyed it), it really helps you get your finances in order. For those of you who want to see where every dollar is going, there are many great sites that teach you where to start.

Another little 'trick' I learned is this; whenever I have the urge to purchase something (food or whatever), I look at how many hours I'll need to work to afford it.

Logged

"The Scots-Irish; Brewed in Scotland, bottled in Ireland, uncorked in America." ~Scots-Irish saying

When I first started looking into frugal living, I came across www.hillbillyhousewife.com. There is a lot on her website, including frugal recipes, low-cost emergency menus, blank menu planners, etc. We use the blank menu planners and make menus for 2 weeks and stick to it. It helps to have those when you're tempted to order out.

I make everything I can from scratch too, even condiments and breads, which saves quite a bit. We buy in bulk when we can and stock up if there are sales. We line dry our clothes when we can-though up in the rainy Pacific Northwest, it's off and on. And since we drive a gas guzzler, we combine trips when we can to save gas. We have a garden as well, and can or freeze a lot what we grow.

Cloth diapers and wipes are the #1 best money saving (and environmentally friendly) venture that one can possibly have as parents. Your trash is cut by at least half and your water bill goes up only slightly if you have a front loader. But you do have to wash in hot for sanitary reasons. My water bill is only $5 higher a month washing diapers for two kids. If I used disp. diapers I would be paying at least $50 a month for diapers and wipes.

It doesn't matter how earth friendly you are with your gas consumption, or lack of plastic bags at the super market or how much you recycle other things if you are putting out bags of non-degradable diapers in trash bags. If every family quit using disp. diapers today the environment would be astronomically better.

For the ladies; reusable menstrual products are much healthier, much cheaper in the long run and unbelievably more comfortable.

The dandelion leaves you pay for in the supermarket are no different to the dandelions you remove from your lawn and throw away. When we were kids, mum used to collect dandelion leaves from vacant blocks and our own yard for salads. Boiled dandelion leaves dressed with a squeeze of lemon juice are also a Greek staple for Fasting days.

A great book is Deceptively Delicious-hide veggies like squash in foods that otherwise are "junk" foods like burgers, brownies, pancakes and the like. By adding veggies that cost less you save money on the other ingredients that cost more.

First off, as others have said, learning to cook at home is an excellent method, and that means from ingredients rather then heating up prepared items. If one is in school or working all day, a slow-cooker/crockpot can be used to make sure that a hot healthful dinner is waiting and then the leftovers can be lunches or used as a base ingredient for another meal.

For young people just starting out on their own, both male and female, I've recommended Peg Bracken's books from the early 60s The I Hate to Cook Book and the Appendix to the I Hate to Cook Book. Copies can be found used for very cheaply and they have lots of good yet easy to follow recipes. We both like to cook, but I still have copies of these books because they're good and the kids will be taught how to cook before they leave home.

Next, thrift shops. In this area at least we've found that many things sent to thrift shops are in excellent or nearly new/brand new condition. Somethings have to be bought new (underwear) but for example for a costume for a child to represent an adult a trip to the thrift store found just the sorts of things needed.

Ebor

Logged

"I wish they would remember that the charge to Peter was "Feed my sheep", not "Try experiments on my rats", or even "Teach my performing dogs new tricks". - C. S. Lewis

^I love thrift stores! I found a 100% cashmere sweater for $3 just the other day. Be sure to carefully inspect each garment for holes, broken zippers, ripped seams, and stains first but I definitely concur that thrift stores are the way to go.

(I also fully agree with not buying used unders, as well as used socks/shoes.)

Logged

Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so. -- Douglas Adams

One other thing Lesya and I discovered recently - a debit card. It's very convenient and there is much less temptation to buy expensive stuff, plus our bank offers some gimmicks when you use your debit card a certain number of times.

Before I left for college, my parents always were trying to save money.

For example, instead of running to Wal-Mart every time we needed one thing, we made do until we need several other things, which saves 30 minutes of gas. In addition, we generally buy in bulk for a month or two at a time, freeze meat, stock the non-perishables in the pantry, and go to the store to buy milk, eggs, etc.

We also stopped buying Soda and just drink milk and water - a lot cheaper and a lot more healthy.

Logged

"He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death, nor mourning nor crying nor suffering, for the old order of things has passed away."

A couple of other tips I've heard from various parenting magazines, websites, and parents:

1. Try to trim the expenses on (or eliminate) regular bills. Do you really need 10,000 wireless minutes? You can also turn the temperature down on the water heater. We have ours set around 110 F so Caitlin can't accidentally scald herself and it does make a slight difference on the bill. I also recently paid off my car loan. Yay! An extra $250 to use each month!

2. Pay off the credit cards. Credit cards fees and interest will eat you alive if left unchecked. I speak from experience here. They're great for emergencies and to boost your credit score, but pay off the balance every month or you're just wasting money on interest.

3. Find cheap entertainment. For those of us with small children, it's such a relief to get out of the house and go to a movie, but you might try sending the kids to grandma's and checking out a video from the library. At least if you find out you hated the movie, you didn't spend $20 in the theatre. Same for books: I have a book addiction and I've probably read half the books I bought over the years. If I get them from the library, not only are they free but I have incentive to read them within three weeks.

Logged

Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so. -- Douglas Adams

Don't buy two brand new cars if you can't afford it. My brother works as a financial planner and sees day in and day out how many people are over-extended on credit and especially cars. Owing the bank loans on new cars plus insurance and gas break a lot of people and he sees cars get taken back by the bank all the time.

Don't eat out much. You can cook that pasta you love that they make at the chain Italian restaurant for 1/4th the price at home.

Don't buy electronics and do-dads you can't afford. Consider buying a used boat instead of taking out a 15 year mortgage on one you'll have to pay 250 plus a month plus insurance for and only use 3-4 months a year every other weekend.

Look for sales when buying clothes. I shop at nice stores and get quality clothes that will last but I don't pay top dollar. There is a clothier that works at the local Macy's that knows what clothes I like and she knows where the deals are in-store. I can walk out of there with good quality clothes that last and have a bill that looks like I shopped at stores selling lesser quality clothes. This means I have jeans/cargo pants that last well over a year, maybe two. I must admit I have jeans that I still wear that are probably 4 years old and in good shape. Why? I paid for the quality up front.

We're lucky to have a grocery store that sells meats and lunch meat/cheeses for a fraction as the big box store that's 2 minutes away. The meat is the same quality just a whole lot cheaper.

Haha, don't eat out a lot, I can't stress that enough.

Take a drink with you, pack a little cooler on day trips. Now that a 20oz/593ml bottle of soda/water costs upwards of 1.50 plus a simple trip to the store to get a snack/eats while you are out on a Saturday afternoon can run the family 20 dollars or more. Pack that in a cooler, make sandwiches at home.

I know people who spend SO much during the week eating out at work, I personally don't like to work and hand my paycheque back to the corner store/fast food/suburban theme restaurants. Again, pack your lunch.

There are so many free things to do for a lazy Saturday day trip anywhere. Grab a local tourist magizine from a hotel or visitor's bureau. Just around here in my county alone there are 104sq. miles of public land to hike and explore. Within an hour radius of my house there are literally millions of acres of public land you can hike, fish, hunt, camp, ride horses and boat on. Pack a lunch, go explore the land God has blessed up with and participate in the year-round activities they have to offer.

Plus on these nice days trips you can teach your children local history and folklore. You can teach them natural history, biology, geology, etc... The ideas are endless!!

One thing to remember if you do eat out: generally, the portions at restaurants are so large that in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle it should be divided into two meals. So guess what? Doggie bag 1/2 (I like to do 1/2 of each course, that way I can still have a 3 course dinner the next night) or more of the meal. You won't starve. You'll get all the variety of flavor you want. You'll get double the meals for the same dollar (or $20). It's more cost effective, and certainly more health conscious.

Logged

"O Cross of Christ, all-holy, thrice-blessed, and life-giving, instrument of the mystical rites of Zion, the holy Altar for the service of our Great Archpriest, the blessing - the weapon - the strength of priests, our pride, our consolation, the light in our hearts, our mind, and our steps"Met. Meletios of Nikopolis & Preveza, from his ordination.

I brew decaffeinated tea or green tea for my younger son's lunch box instead of giving him prepackaged fruit drinks (he loves tea and teas are high in antioxidants). He has a stainless steel thermos to keep it nice and cold. I then decided to buy a larger stainless steel thermos for my older son to take to wrestling practice so he can have ice cold tap water during his break instead of bottled water that comes in unhealthy plastic containers. We never buy sodas and I rarely buy processed snack foods (crackers, chips, cookies). Instead, we eat fruits and veggies for snacks. We get apples from our tree in the backyard and we make real lemonade from our Meyer lemon tree. In the winter, for a time, we squeeze our own orange juice from our orange tree.I dry many of my own herbs (ex: basil, mint, and I get homemade dried Greek and Italian oregano from my friend at church). When you dry your own herbs they are much more flavorful and potent for cooking.Our downtown is close, so each afternoon, I put on my backpack and walk to Trader Joes to get various groceries, drop mail off at the post office, buy items from the drug store, and purchase meat at the butcher. Besides saving money on gas running errands, I get my daily workout walking downtown. Also, I have never purchased coffee drinks (Starbucks) or fruit smoothies (Jamba Juice). Imagine how much you would save a week if you didn't purchase a $3-$5 cup of coffee everyday!

Wow! You must live in a more temperate climate than I do. I wish we had an orage tree. My kids would be out there daily searching for ripe fruit. The crab apple tree just doesn't seem appealing to them

Wow! You must live in a more temperate climate than I do. I wish we had an or age tree. My kids would be out there daily searching for ripe fruit. The crab apple tree just doesn't seem appealing to them

The California bay area is perfect for growing fruits and veggies. When I was growing up our backyard was full of fruit trees. My dad planted a plum, apricot, peach, fig, apple, orange, and lemon tree in our backyard. From the harvest Mom would make umradeen (the Arabic name for dried fruit roll ups), jams, pies, and canned fruit. In the summer dad filled the left side of the yard with tomatoes, corn, squash, cucumber, eggplant and pepper plants. In the front yard he planted an olive and pomegranate tree. He said he only wanted to plant what he could eat. I remember a Greek neighbor lady coming over to our backyard to pick weeds (horta) for her Greek salad.

Speaking of chips, Mr. Y and I have started baking our own tortilla and potato chips. We buy a package of 100 small tortillas and cut them into quarters. Spray with a little olive oil, and salt and pop it in the oven at 350 degrees. It takes about 10 minutes until they're brown and crispy enough for chips. It does take a little time, but you get hot tortilla chips for a lot cheaper than you can buy a bag of chips. And, bonus, you can't make a ton of them at once, so it will be harder to overeat.

Potato chips take a little longer (about 20 minutes) and they'll look more brown than bagged chips by the time they're cooked enough. We add whatever spices sound good at the time (I'm fond of dill and garlic while Mr. Y likes the Sweet and Smoky BBQ rub from Pampered Chef). Just slice the potatoes as thin as you'd like them but keep in mind that thicker slices take longer to cook. The 20 minutes estimate is for chips no thicker than 1/4 inch (if even that).

Logged

Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so. -- Douglas Adams

The bartering system with friends at church could work for some folks on this site. In our parish we have one family who raises chickens for their eggs. They usually have an abundance of eggs so they will share them with other families in our parish. Another gentleman grows blueberries on his farm and is a beekeeper who produces honey. When blueberries were in season he invited folks from the parish to come pick berries. If you have folks in your parish who have farms or orchards perhaps you could work out a barter with them for the things they produce.

"The Freecycle Network" is another way in which communities reduce waste by freely gifting excess among it's members. There are over 4,600 Freecycle communities worldwide (inluding one here in the Blue Mountains). I managed to get a mountain bike for free as well as a box of figs from which I made jam and gave some jars of it away to other members! See if there is a Freecycle community near you: http://www.freecycle.org/

Logged

If you're living a happy life as a Christian, you're doing something wrong.

We're on three different Freecycle groups (since we're in an overlapping area) and they can be very useful and helpful. I've also found a couple of very good items very inexpensively on CraigsList. But care has to be taken with that.

Ebor

Logged

"I wish they would remember that the charge to Peter was "Feed my sheep", not "Try experiments on my rats", or even "Teach my performing dogs new tricks". - C. S. Lewis

Potato chips take a little longer (about 20 minutes) and they'll look more brown than bagged chips by the time they're cooked enough. We add whatever spices sound good at the time (I'm fond of dill and garlic while Mr. Y likes the Sweet and Smoky BBQ rub from Pampered Chef). Just slice the potatoes as thin as you'd like them but keep in mind that thicker slices take longer to cook. The 20 minutes estimate is for chips no thicker than 1/4 inch (if even that).

This also works great with sweet potatoes. I usually just do a little salt, pepper & olive oil. They really great with the frozen Parmesan-encrusted fish fillets I buy at the grocery store. Even the two-year-old likes them (although not the fish - fish sticks, yes, but a fish fillet, well forget it).

Potato chips take a little longer (about 20 minutes) and they'll look more brown than bagged chips by the time they're cooked enough. We add whatever spices sound good at the time (I'm fond of dill and garlic while Mr. Y likes the Sweet and Smoky BBQ rub from Pampered Chef). Just slice the potatoes as thin as you'd like them but keep in mind that thicker slices take longer to cook. The 20 minutes estimate is for chips no thicker than 1/4 inch (if even that).

This also works great with sweet potatoes. I usually just do a little salt, pepper & olive oil. They really great with the frozen Parmesan-encrusted fish fillets I buy at the grocery store. Even the two-year-old likes them (although not the fish - fish sticks, yes, but a fish fillet, well forget it).

Just cancelled the satellite TV last month (~$70 per month). Many of my favorite channels are online and have full past recent episodes of my favorite series. No FOX news but between townhall.com and the O'Reilly premium membership I can keep up with my favorite flavor of propaganda :-)Cancelled the land line and Verizon cell phone, too. Metro PCS is much cheaper as is MajicJack.Books? Reading reruns. They're good the second time around, too!

Potato chips take a little longer (about 20 minutes) and they'll look more brown than bagged chips by the time they're cooked enough. We add whatever spices sound good at the time (I'm fond of dill and garlic while Mr. Y likes the Sweet and Smoky BBQ rub from Pampered Chef). Just slice the potatoes as thin as you'd like them but keep in mind that thicker slices take longer to cook. The 20 minutes estimate is for chips no thicker than 1/4 inch (if even that).

This also works great with sweet potatoes. I usually just do a little salt, pepper & olive oil. They really great with the frozen Parmesan-encrusted fish fillets I buy at the grocery store. Even the two-year-old likes them (although not the fish - fish sticks, yes, but a fish fillet, well forget it).

Thank you! My husband got me hooked tonight - at the moment we're holed up for at least a day or so thanks to the massive snow storm blanketing Iowa at the moment. On the upside, we have all the food we need and we won't have the opportunity to spend money.

As for fish sticks, yes, I love them too, but I can't convince him that it's the same stuff as the fish fillets. It has to be in that unnatural stick form for him to recognize at food. I suppose it's the prerogative of being 2.

And I have to second all the cloth diaper comments out there. It's definitely a money saver. I cringe every time we spend a weekend at my parents' (we don't travel with them b/c they have nasty rural water) and have to buy a pack.

As for breast feeding, definitely cheaper, but not everyone can do it. If that's your lot (as was mine), go for the generic bulk formulas - they're no different. In fact my pediatrician chided me for not using generic to begin with.

- I'm getting ready to modify my diet so that I cut out the processed foods and start eating/cooking with fresh foods more (especially meatless chilis, stews, soups, etc.), which I think will help cut down on my food budget, and also be healthier for me.

- This one would hurt me to put into practice, but one tip for living simply is to limit the DVD's, CD's, and books that you have to one or two book cases or storage units.

- Walk when you can. I caught myself one day almost driving my car from one side of the parking lot to another when I was going to go to a different store. What, I couldn't walk that 35 yards?

- Keep a clean house. Does that count as living simply and well? I think so. Also, avoid pack-rattery, and if you have that habit, break yourself of it if you can.

- Don't use chemicals you don't have to, whether that be tylenol for a minor ache, to dietary supplements, to smoking. Use what you need, but don't fall into the trap of thinking that you should have or need a chemical for everything in life.

- Watch how much garbage you create, and take steps to create less. Recycle if you can manage it and need to.

- Take shorter showers, turn the water off while brushing your teeth, etc.

Maybe it was due to my parents being thrifty or maybe because out in Montana we were raised with a sense of "water discipline" since it's fairly dry, but the idea of letting the tap run while brushing my teeth is utterly alien even now that I live on the soggy eastern seaboard. We were taught to fill a small cup with water and turn off the tap and then brush and rinse. Is letting the water keep running common?

Logged

"I wish they would remember that the charge to Peter was "Feed my sheep", not "Try experiments on my rats", or even "Teach my performing dogs new tricks". - C. S. Lewis

First off, as others have said, learning to cook at home is an excellent method, and that means from ingredients rather then heating up prepared items. If one is in school or working all day, a slow-cooker/crockpot can be used to make sure that a hot healthful dinner is waiting and then the leftovers can be lunches or used as a base ingredient for another meal.

For young people just starting out on their own, both male and female, I've recommended Peg Bracken's books from the early 60s The I Hate to Cook Book and the Appendix to the I Hate to Cook Book. Copies can be found used for very cheaply and they have lots of good yet easy to follow recipes. We both like to cook, but I still have copies of these books because they're good and the kids will be taught how to cook before they leave home.

Next, thrift shops. In this area at least we've found that many things sent to thrift shops are in excellent or nearly new/brand new condition. Somethings have to be bought new (underwear) but for example for a costume for a child to represent an adult a trip to the thrift store found just the sorts of things needed.

Ebor

i remember that book...my mom taught my sisters how to cook with that one!

Make your own cleaning supplies. Bleach, vinegar and ammonia are all very cheap and you can mix them with water in a spray bottle for easy cleaning. Home made laundry soap is also pretty easy to make using borax and washing powder.